Environmental condition detectors, such as smoke detectors, having the ability to transmit operating status information to a remote central monitoring facility have been proposed. Signals generated by the smoke detectors are sent to a central facility using either hardwire or radio frequency communications methods. However, all of these systems require the complete replacement of existing smoke detectors with those designed for use in a remote monitoring system. Unfortunately, the replacement of smoke detectors can be an expensive renovation, reducing the consumer acceptability of these systems. One smoke detector system having the aforementioned characteristics is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,618,853 issued on Oct. 21, 1986.
In addition, many of the most recently proposed smoke detectors capable of transmitting operating status information do so to surrounding smoke detectors. In such systems, as proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,159,315 issued on Oct. 27, 1992, the receipt of the status information by surrounding smoke or other environmental condition detectors causes these detectors to sound alarms. While such systems are useful in industrial settings where the area to be monitored is large, these smoke detectors add little value to the monitoring of smaller personal dwellings where environmental conditions will be detected by all detectors within a very limited time interval.